Franz Schubert: The Story of the Boy Who Wrote Beautiful Songs

In Vienna, in the late 18th century, a boy with dark eyes and an enormous gift sat in church and listened to the choir. That boy was Franz Schubert, and the songs he heard there would shape the rest of his short life. By the time he was a teenager, Schubert was already composing music so beautiful that people wept when they heard it. He wrote over six hundred songs, symphonies, and chamber works, all before dying at just thirty-one years old. This book follows young Franz from his first music lessons through his years singing in the Emperor's choir to his struggles as a young composer in Vienna. He knew poverty. He knew illness. But he never stopped writing melodies. Through anecdotes about his friendships with other musicians and his encounters with Beethoven, young readers glimpse a world where music mattered more than money. The original edition invited children to paste in their own illustrations, making this not just a story to read but a story to touch and make their own.